Secure and Fast Aggregation of Financial Data in Cloud-Based Expense Tracking Applications

Tracking expenses is a task performed in homes and businesses worldwide; for personal finances, the practice of organizing receipts for refunds or summarizing its contents for purposes such as budget planning and tax submission, has been recently aided by different services; these allow automatic collection of receipts either at store terminals or using a photo of the receipt submitted by the user, which can be later accessed using an online interface. Given the importance of financial information and the inherent danger introduced by these services, we present in this article an architecture based on additive homomorphic cryptosystems and secret sharing schemes to store information securely while still allowing fast aggregation queries at an outsourced untrusted cloud server. The proposal was evaluated in terms of security, server load, amount of user interaction, computational load at the acquiring terminal and computational load at the untrusted server.     

Elemental composition of ancient Japanese bones

Excavated bones (rib) obtained from 50 sites in Japan were measured by ICP atomic emission spectrometry and atomic absorption spectrometry for concentration of 19 elements, including Al, B, Ca, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Sr, Ti, V and Zn. One hundred and forty-one specimens were classified into five groups according to Japanese prehistoric and historic eras (Jomon, Yayoi, Kofun, Kamakura and Muromachi, and Edo). The elements, with concentrations which showed no significant change with era were Al, B and Cr. Average concentrations of Ca were in the range 2-2.5 X 10(-1) g g-1 and those of P ranged from 1.1 to 1.3 X 10(-1) g g-1, indicating a well-preserved bone mineral matrix. The Ca/P ratio (mol/mol) was lowest in the Edo group--1.48 as compared with 1.54-1.66 in the other groups. Among the elements which showed changes with era were Pb, Fe, Co and Mn, all of which showed remarkably elevated concentrations in the Edo group. In addition to this unique elemental composition of Edo bones, samples from the Kofun era showed a completely different composition from those of other periods, i.e. they had the highest concentrations of Cd, Zn and Mg, and the lowest concentrations of Cu, K, Ni and Sr. The cause of the elevated Pb concentration in Edo bones is discussed in relation to human activities which may have led to environmental Pb pollution.     

Sex- and age-related variation in elemental concentrations of contemporary Japanese ribs

Twenty elements (Al, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Sr, Ti, V, Zn, C and N) in 42 Japanese ribs (forensic medical autopsy cases) were determined using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and carbon and nitrogen analysis to examine sex- and age-related variation in the concentrations of these elements. Bone Fe and Pb concentrations were significantly higher, while P concentrations were lower in males. Elements which showed age-related variation were Ca, P, Al, Fe, Mg, Na, Pb and Zn. Of these, Al, Fe, Pb and Zn linearly accumulate in bone with advancing age. The elements Na and Mg showed the lowest and highest concentrations in the youngest age group (0-19 years), respectively, and reached plateau levels in older age groups. The Ca and P concentrations were highest in the 20-39-year age group, gradually decreasing throughout older age groups, indicating that osteoporotic bone loss occurs in the older subjects. In addition, the results of correlation analysis indicated that the organic matter content of the bone, represented by C or N concentration, was a factor which contributed to the elemental variation of the bone.     

Cationic copolymerization of epoxy siloxane monomer with liquid poly‐butadiene and its light emitting diode encapsulation

A novel epoxy siloxane hybrid was prepared using epoxy siloxane monomers of 1,3‐bis[2‐(3‐{7‐oxabicyclo[4.1.0]heptyl})ethyl]‐tetramethyldisiloxane (BEPDS) with hydroxyl terminated hydrogenated polybutadiene (GI‐1000), in different proportions. Apparent polymerization reactivity was decreased with increasing GI‐1000 concentration but the normalized reactivity per epoxy group was slightly increased due to reaction between hydroxyl group and epoxy group. Increasing GI‐1000 concentration showed significant flexibility improvement in epoxy siloxane hybrid. At 30 wt % of GI‐1000 addition, glass transition temperature was decreased from 116 to 21°C and shore D hardness was decreased from 75 to 46.5% weight loss temperature of these epoxy siloxane hybrid was decreased with increasing GI‐1000 concentration, whereas thermal discoloration was increased. LED encapsulation with this epoxy siloxane demonstrated no crack when GI‐1000 was 30 wt % or more. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Applications of ATM in global networks

This article describes the market drivers, objectives, and consequences of introducing ATM into public and private networks. To serve the diverse needs of environments and applications, ATM presents a broad choice of characteristics to users and providers. To harness this diversity and bring structure to the choices, this article discusses ATM transfer capabilities (ATCs) and quality of service (QoS) classes as specified in ITU-T Study Group 13. Industry aims to achieve consistency between the ITU-T and ATM Forum specifications. This article includes consideration of AALs and interworking in developing network strategies. Providers will offer a selection of the possible services defined for ATM. Also, each provider will communicate their strategy for preferred network utilization and efficient traffic through incentives to users     

Development of multicomponent vaporization/condensation model for a reactor safety analysis code SIMMER-III: Theoretical modeling and basic verification

It is believed that the numerical simulation of thermal-hydraulic phenomena of multiphase, multicomponent flows in a reactor core is essential to investigate core disruptive accidents (CDAs) of liquid-metal fast reactors. A new multicomponent vaporization/condensation (V/C) model was developed to provide a generalized model for a fast reactor safety analysis code SIMMER-III, which analyzes relatively short-time-scale phenomena relevant to accident sequences of CDAs. The model characterizes the V/C process associated with phase transition through heat-transfer and mass-diffusion limited models to follow the time evolution of the reactor core under CDA conditions. The heat-transfer limited model describes the nonequilibrium phase-transition processes occurring at interfaces, while the mass-diffusion limited model is employed to represent effects of noncondensable gases and multicomponent mixture on V/C processes. Verification of the model and method employed in the multicomponent V/C model of SIMMER-III was performed successfully by analyzing a series of multicomponent phase-transition experiments.     

Multifocal occurrence of gastric carcinoma in patients with a family history of gastric carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Smoking and alcoholic beverage drinking habits as well as a family history of cancer are well known risk factors for the multifocal occurrence of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus and the head and neck region. However, the role of these risk factors in multiple gastric carcinoma remains to be clarified. The purpose of this study was to examine the risk factors for multiple gastric carcinoma. METHODS: The smoking and drinking habits as well as the family history of 157 patients with synchronous multiple gastric carcinoma and 157 patients with solitary gastric carcinoma who were similar with regard to gender, age, stage of the tumor, and year of admission were investigated. The risk of a multiple occurrence of gastric carcinoma also was elevated using the odds ratio (OR). RESULTS: The ORs of a multifocal occurrence of gastric carcinoma in patients who currently smoked and drank alcoholic beverages were 1.1 and 0.8, respectively, although the ORs were not related to the quantity of smoking or drinking. In patients with a close relative with gastric carcinoma the OR was 2.1 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-3.7). In those patients with > or =2 close relatives with gastric carcinoma, the OR increased to 5.1 (95% CI, 1.2-21.1). Conversely, no significant elevation in the ORs was recognized regarding a family history of other cancers. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, a family history of gastric carcinoma was found to be clearly associated with the multifocal occurrence of gastric carcinoma; however, no significant correlation between the multifocal occurrence of gastric carcinoma in these patients and their smoking and drinking habits was recognized.     

Successful emergency operation for massive hemorrhage due to jejunal angiodysplasia after intensive chemotherapy in a patient with refractory anemia with excess of blasts

A 59-year-old man was referred to our hospital because of pancytopenia. Peripheral blood examination showed a WBC of 1,500/microliters with 2% blasts, Hb 8.1 g/dl and a platelet count of 4.1 x 10(4)/microliters. A bone marrow aspiration revealed hyperplasia with proliferation of blasts (15.7%) and myelodysplasia. Chromosome analysis revealed multiple aberrations, including -5, -7, +8. The patient was given a diagnosis of refractory anemia with excess of blasts (RAEB) and treated with combination chemotherapy. Agranulocytosis and high fever remained after chemotherapy, and abdominal pain and diarrhea developed. An abdominal X-ray film and computed tomography scan demonstrated dilated small bowel, thickness of the bowel wall, and ascites. A diagnosis of neutropenic enterocolitis was given. During the WBC recovery period from nadir, massive hematochezia developed in the patient. Angiography detected the leakage of contrast medium from a peripheral region of the first jejunal artery into the jejunal lumen. A partial resection of the jejunum was thus performed, and a histological examination revealed the presence of irregularly dilated blood vessels in the submucosal layer. These findings were consistent with the features of angiodysplasia, and indicate that angiodysplasia should be considered one cause of intestinal hemorrhage in elderly patients during intensive chemotherapy.